Shenley Wood and it's star 'birds'!

What a glorious sunny morning. My eldest daughter had been banging on about a 'good stamp around the woods' so I didn't want to disappoint. I also wanted to have a look around and make sure the bat boxes were still hanging up.
Not long after entering our ride I picked up a large tit flock moving through and above, this contained a Marsh Tit (possibly the earlier Marsh Tit from next doors garden) a Coal Tit ( which is always nice as we have no pine in Shenley) Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long tailed Tits and a Treecreeper. I could also hear Greater Spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker.

Views down the main rides -

Main centre Oak - or 'Sally' Centre Oak if your 7 years old!

But the star 'bird' today was not a bird, but in fact an insect - ladybirds and 7 Spotted Ladybirds to be precise. In a 2 metre square patch alone my daughter and I fought over who could count the most. We gave up at 25+! It was amazing to see so many of these insects enjoying the daytime sun or coming out from within their overnight roost spots . Every leaf we up turned showed sheltering 7 Spots.

As we continued around the wood we estimated at least 150+ 7 Spotted Ladybirds showing along the low vegetation along the paths. So how many were in amongst the more sheltered spots?
Alas, I did find one Harlequin Ladybird (in a two spotted form) near the 7 Spots.

And this Shield Bug showed in it's autumnal attire -
We also spotted 1 Speckled Wood butterfly (my last butterfly of the year?) and a few mushrooms around the paths.
Plus interestingly, the previous Noctule Bat roost tree had a strange drumming noises coming from within it! Plus a Greater Spotted Woodpecker was tapping away nearby. So I predict a Woodpecker was actually inside the previous bat roost - lets hope it's just having a look round and tiding up!